Month: April 2017

Posted on

Week 14: April 22-27

 

A new narrative about Trump started in Week 14, just shy of his 100th day in office (April 29): Trump the bluffer.

He threatened a government shutdown by his own party unless his boarder wall was funded, then backed down. He threatened to pull out of NAFTA, then after phone calls from Mexico and Canada he backed down. Here is the Upshot explaining how bluffing has been a key feature of Trump’s strategy as a businessman, and how it has limits in the realm of politics.

Apparently concerned that he will be mocked for too few accomplishments in his first 100 days, Trump announced that he would roll out his tax reform plan on Wednesday. His economic advisors were taken by surprise by the announcement and had to put together this plan in a matter of days, which is why it only contained a hundred words on one piece of paper and no specific numbers. The plan gives away most tax benefits to the wealthiest. As with health care, there are divisions on taxes between factions of the GOP and the White House which may ground any potential bill.

Health Care

An amendment was added to the GOP health care bill that allowed states to let insurance companies discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions, but said that if a state did make such a move it would not apply to members of Congress or their staffs. Within 24 hours of Vox reporting this on Tuesday:

  • the congressman pushing the new amendment said it would be taken out at some point
  • House Republicans said it was Senate staffers who inserted the Congress exemption language
  • the Senate said that was not true. So everyone involved is claiming not to know where it came from.

By the end of the week it was clear that there were not enough votes to pass in time for Trump’s 100 Days on Saturday. There is still talk of working on getting the votes next week.

Russia Stuff

Michael Flynn had a bad week. Politico reported that his Turkish lobbying work (which always seemed random to me) was actually a front for Russian energy companies. Then Congress and the Defense Department said it was investigating Flynn for potentially breaking laws by taking payments from Russia.

The Senate investigation of Russia election interference was accused of dragging it’s feet, and the Democratic co-chair Senator Warner had to come out and say that things are progressing and asking people to be patient.

100 Days

Apparently concerned that he will be mocked for too few accomplishments in his first 100 days, Trump announced that he would roll out his tax reform plan on Wednesday. His economic advisors were taken by surprise by the announcement and had to put together this plan in a matter of days, which is why it only contained a hundred words on one piece of paper and no specific numbers. The plan gives away most tax benefits to the wealthiest. As with health care, there are divisions on taxes between factions of the GOP and the White House which may ground any potential bill.

Trump gave some interview this week where he gave some revealing self-reflections: He told the AP that he never realized how big the federal government was. He told Reuters that he thought being president would be easier than his old life.

As the 100-day mark approached, there were many great think pieces reflection on what many people thought would happen back on January 20 and what actually has happened. Here is Ross Douthat on how it could be worse. David Brooks writes that Trump has been downgraded from truly dangerous to merely inadequate, and that the left should downgrade its outrage accordingly. Nate Silver makes a similar case that we all need to stop obsessively focusing on the Trump spectacle and resume a more normal, wide ranging political-news diet.

I am going to take their advice. While I will still keep reading all the news papers I have been linking in this weekly diary of the Trump era, I will no longer keep writing these weekly posts. Maybe when some important and convoluted news cycle emerges from Washington, I will post about it. But I have not read the Arts and Leisure section since the election. It is time to see what else is happening in the world and to see it not through the lenses of the orange-tinted glasses we have been wearing for the last year.

Posted on

Week 13: April 15-21

Russia Stuff

Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker has been covering the Devin Nunes scandal. In what may be the last chapter of the story sparked by Trump’s false wiretapping claim, we learn that to justify or distract from Trump’s tweet:

  • the White House dug into national security records to find examples of times when right-wing boogey-woman Susan Rice requested names of Americans unmasked in intelligence reports, which by the way is a routine and perfectly innocuous part of the national security advisor’s job.
  • then the White House called Nunes to the White House to give him these documents
  • then asked Nunes to return the next day and brief the President, allowing Trump to say he was justified in what he tweeted.

Reuters reported this week that a Russian think tank drew up plans on how the Kremlin could interfere with the 2016 American election. The documents focus on social media propaganda, not the hacking and weaponization of stolen emails.

Foreign Affairs

Week 13 began with the North Koreans causing trouble, a missile launch and a massive military parade.

Also, Trump made a shocking move by officially congratulating the president of Turkey on winning enough votes to weaken democratic institutions in Turkey, increasing his autocratic powers. At the State Department, Tillerson put out a very different, more negative message than Trump. Another case of different parts of the Trump Administration being off message from one another is Russia, where Trump speaks in rosy terms but national security aides are more critical of Russia.

Here is another WaPo story about the Trump Administration sowing confusion with mixed signals on foreign affairs.  

Conflicts of Interest

The New York Times reported on how Trump is staffing his administration with former lobbyists and already breaking his own ethics rules.

Here is a profile of how Ivanka Trump traveling all over the world as both a White House employee and head of her private company. This paragraph is telling:  “…she has kept her financial interest in the company and retains the ability to approve or veto certain deals through her trust arrangement. Ms. Trump also maintains a stake in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, just down the street from the White House.”

Politico headline: Trump’s billionaire advisor stand to gain from policies he helped shape.  This is about China policy being shaped by Blackstone CEO who has major investments in China.

Immigration

The Washington Post reported that ICE immigration arrests of noncriminals have dubbed under Trump.

Congressional Action

In Week 13, Trump’s refusal to release his taxes was becoming a Democratic justification for blocking a GOP tax reform bill.

The American Health Care Act was revived this week and the White House and the GOP are making another push to pass the Obamacare replacement. Here is a great explainer by Vox on why the GOP are stuck in a vicious cycle on health care that will push them to keep trying to pass a health care bill but will not allow them to actually ever pass one. And here is another take by the Upshot: they report on how allowing states to repeal protections for people with pre-existing conditions would return to the old days of massive questionnaires about your health history and the likelihood of being denied or charged more based on how these questions are answered. It’s the best reminder I have read about what life was like before Obamacare.

Posted on

ST01 005: The Man Trap

In this episode:

  • Boy oh boy, the critics really did not like this first episode of Star Trek to premier on TV
  • Uhura gets a great few scenes–is her fourth episode the highlight of her character’s career?
  • We look at the the conflict between the original writer and Roddenberry’s re-writes, and how it resulted in another great Kirk speech
  • Also, I know it’s Nancy CRATER not CARTER. I’m not a bad fan, just a bit dyslexic

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

Posted on

ST1 004: The Enemy Within

In this episode:

  • It took only four episodes for a transporter accident to happen–and I thought it was the safest way to travel
  • How “The Enemy Within” is an improvement on its literary forbearer Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
  • The first show written by an established sci-fi author, Richard Matheson, and it shows: a deep, multi-faceted exploration of the theme of the primacy of human intellect.
  • Credit where credit is due: an enlightened and sophisticated depiction of a rape accusation by a low-ranked woman (Rand) against her superior officer (Kirk)  

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

Posted on

ST1 003: Mudd’s Women

In this episode:

  • Mudd’s Women: some fans love it, others wish they could forget it
  • Justin discusses the show’s feminist strengths (yes, there are some) and problems
  • A historical mini-lesson on “wiving settlers” and mail-order brides
  • The world-building that Mudd’s Women contributes to the series cannot be ignored
  • A Star Trek: Discover update–implications for Mudd’s return

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

Posted on

ST1 002: The Corbomite Maneuver

In this episode:

  • The Corbomite Maneuver: how Trek self-parodied its technobabble decades before technobabble became something to parody
  • The introduction of Uhura and Yeoman Rand
  • Discussion of how people of color are represented on Star Trek versus other sci-fi franchises
  • Interesting facts about how much the Trek actors were paid

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

Posted on

ST1 001: Where No Man Has Gone Before

In this episode:

  • Justin explains the four literary elements he will us to analyze the first season of Star Trek The Original Series: Narrative Tension; World Building; Diversity & Inclusivity; The Message
  • Discussion of how the Star Trek Universe was first introduced to viewers
  • A feminist defense of Trek’s first female lead character, Dr. Dehner
  • The first Kirk Speech!
  • Also, how this is all preparation for the new Star Trek series on CBS, Star Trek: Discovery

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS

Posted on

Week 12: April 7-14 (A weekly record of the Trump era)

Russia

We have known for a while that the FBI applied for a FISA warrant to surveil Trump associates during the election. This week we learned that the Carter Page was the one the FBI was investigating.

The Guardian reported that British Intelligence and half a dozen other European intelligence agencies were informing their U.S. counterparts of Trump’s ties to Russian spies as early as 2015.

Syria

Within 63 hours of Assad’s chemical attack on April 4, Trump sent 59 tomahawk missiles into Syria Thursday evening, April 6. There were a few skeptical media voices commenting about Trump’s decision to Bomb Assad’s airbase. David Frum was one.

Also, five days later, Tuesday, we dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb in ISIS in Afghanistan.

Pivot?

This was the week Trump backed off many of his most unrealistic campaign promises:

He has pivoted on foreign policy. Also on economic policy.  NATO is no longer obsolete.

Bannon is on the outs. The White House staff Bannon calls “the Democrats” are ascending, and their corporate experience is now shaping Trump’s views on a raft of policies. Here is conservative writer Rich Lowery lamenting what will happen if Jared Kushner supplants Bannon.

One thing Trump has not pivoted on is illegal immigration: Trump administration moving quickly to build up nationwide deportation force

Congressional Actions

As the White House moves on the tax reform, the Democrats have take the strategy that they cannot support any tax policy without knowing how it would effect Trump’s tax bottom line, meaning he will have to release his tax returns before they agree to any tax legislation.

Let’s not forget to keep an eye on Jeff Sessions: He is shutting down a panel of scientists that the Obama Justice Department set up to do quality control on the use of forensic evidence. Also,  he has hired Steven Cook, who has been a proponent of mandatory minimums and other tough-on-drugs policies.

 

Posted on

Star Trek Discovery Will be a Different Kind of Trek, Part II

Last week it was formally announced that Sonequa Martin-Green will play the lead character of CBS’s new Star Trek series, stepping into the boots previously filled by Shatner, Stewart, Brooks, Mulgrew and Backula. What is unique about the role (other than the fact that she is the second female lead and the first black woman to helm a Trek series) is that her character–First Officer Michael Burnham–is NOT the captain of the starship that serves as the setting of the series. That distinction goes to Jason Isaacs who will play Captain Lorca.

Sonequa Martin-Green

Burnham is the new “Number One” and the writers tell us that Lorca will refer to her by that title. So Martin-Green’s character is actually stepping into the boots previously filled by Spock, Riker, Commander Kira, and Chakotay–yet she is still the series lead. This will have profound implications for how the stories on Discovery unfold.

First, let us dispense with the notion that this is a gimmick, that Lorca will be killed off early and Burnham will assume command. Part of the show’s concept and approach seems to be predicated on the lead not being in command. The entire point is to create a pathway for a different kind of storytelling in the Trek universe. Martin-Green herself recently said, “it’s going to open up so much potential for new storylines because not being the captain automatically gives you a different perspective.” At least for the first season, and possibly for more or all of the series run, Burnham will not be captain. (Only Voyager writers would introduce a character one way only to reverse themselves by the end of the first episode–see Maquis, Chakotay.)

So how different will Discovery be?

The Captain’s Speech

In most previous Trek series, the way you knew the episode was coming to a close was because the captain gave a dramatic speech summing up the moral of the story. I exaggerate, but only a little. At the climax of the first episode of The Original Series, Kirk gave the very first Kirk Speech about Gary Mitchell becoming a god: “And what will Mitchell learn in getting there? Will he know what to do with his power? Will he acquire the wisdom? … Did you hear him joke about compassion? Of all else, a God needs compassion.” This pattern continued in many future episodes. In future series the pattern was replicated with the Picard speech, the Janeway speech, and (shudder, shudder) the Archer speech. Deep Space Nine was more democratic in who got to moralize: Sisko had some important speeches, but more often than not the honor went to Kira, Odo, and even Quark–and frequently the moral was so ambiguous that the episode ended in silence because no one knew quite what to say.

How will Discovery handle this Trekian tradition?

The traditional route would be for Burnham to be given the speechifying role, making her the moral center of the show. This begs the question: who will she be speechifying to? Will it be Lorca, in his ready room, and then he goes onto the bridge and gives the orders she has talked him into giving? 

Another option is to have Lorca give the dramatic speeches, but unlike all the other series, position him to be in the wrong, or at least voicing opinions that Burnham disagrees with.

A third option is to dispense with the speeches altogether. Unless the writers are aiming for DS9-level ambiguity, this could mean that Discovery will emphasize plot and action over theme. I’m not sure how you maintain Trekian theme-based storytelling without a character to give voice to those themes. Though they might surprise us with a creative solution.

In any case, the question of who gets to make the speeches will be something to look for in the first episodes.          

The Center Seat

In every Trek series, power is situated in the captain. He or she is the one who makes the decisions and gives the orders. All the other characters, no matter how skilled or interesting or well-loved they are by fans, revolve around the captain. The viewer will eventually always look to the captain for the solution to the story because he or she always makes the final call by nature of their position at the top of the chain of command. This will be no different on Discovery, which is what makes the Burnham’s lead status so intriguing: what kind of stories can be told when someone other than the lead gets to make all the decisions?

Keep in mind this is not a ‘lower decks’ situation where the lead is toiling away down in the astro-metrics lab, taking part in stories where the command crew is not central to the plot. Burnham is the first officer, positioned right beside the captain on the bridge. She will be in the middle of the action, integral to the main mission of the ship along side the captain. And yet–somehow–we are supposed to pay more attention to her than to him. I am not suggesting it is impossible. But this is the challenge the writers have set out for themselves, and it promises to make for a refreshing new take on a 50-year-old formula.

There is the ‘bad captain’ theory, wherein Lorca is designed to be the type of captain that we do not look to for the solution or the right answer–either because he is morally corrupt, or merely incompetent. In this case, the narrative tension rests on how Burnham handles situations where she has the right solution but is unable to act on it, or has to convince Lorca to act on it.

There is the ‘good captain’ theory, wherein Burnham idolizes Lorca. Here the narrative tension would rest on her struggles to live up to his standards, to make him proud of her.

In both of those scenarios, Burnham will still be stuck in Lorca’s orbit (and Martin-Green in Isaacs’s). Perhaps the series will slyly challenge the audience’s Trek (and other more engrained) biases by forcing us to turn our gaze from the white man in power to the black woman at his side. Yes, he is in the center seat and he gets to make the decisions, but the true drama and the real story is in her. That would be a radical change, and it would be a welcome updating of Trek’s long tradition of inclusivity and social commentary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on

Week 11: March 31-April 6

Despite the fact that Trump told reporters he has had the best first 13 weeks of any president, Week 11 was …

Russia

The week began with Sean Spicer doubling down–quadrupling down?–on Trump’s wiretapping claim: “But I think more and more the substance that continues to come out on the record by individuals continues to point to exactly what the president was talking about that day.”

The Devin Nunes chapter of this saga may have reached its climax and conclusion this week. We learned that the National Security Council’s senior director for intelligence, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, was conducting a review of ‘unmasking’ identities in intelligence reports that happened during the final months of the Obama Administration. He found out that Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice requested some names unmasked. APPARENTLY, this was the bombshell that Coehn-Watnick passed on to Nunes, the evidence that made Nunes jump out of his Uber and go to the White House, and then the following day pretend to brief the President on evidence already in his possession, which then allowed Trump to say his wiretapping claim was “partially vindicated.” While unmaking names in intelligence is routine, Rice denied compiling and leaking the names of Trump officials.

Then on Thursday, the House Ethics Committee said that Nunes’s stunt “may have made unauthorized disclosures of classified information.” He promptly recused himself from the Russia investigation.

We also learned this week that the CIA had evidence of Russia aiding Trump earlier than previously understood. This in an important piece of the tic-tock that is being assembled to paint the full picture of what happened during the 2016 election.

Palace Intrigue

The Washington Post paints an interesting picture of an increasingly lonely, isolated Trump who lacks true allies in Washington.

Trump donated some of his annual salary to the US Park Service, although not by enough to make up for the millions his budget cuts out from the same organization. The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump has revised the terms of his blind trust that allows him to withdraw money whenever he lives and without telling the public, which ethics experts say may pose conflicts of interest going forward.

Trump, at the request of National Security Advisor McMaster, removed Stephen Bannon from the National Security Council. Apparently he will still be allowed to attend meetings, which is still unprecedented for a political aide.

WaPo has a report on Bannon’s internecine office warfare with other White House staff, namely Kushner and Gary Cohn, whom he calls “Democrats.” While the first half of these 11 weeks have been marked by Bannon’s ascendence, by the end of Week 11 rumors were thick that he was about the be fired.

Health Care & Congress

There was a last minute shuffle on the American Health Care act this week (apparently requested by Preibus, who wanted even a symbolic win on health care before the Congress goes home for a two week recess). Politico reported that the push by Mike Pence failed because it was perceived by the GOP moderates and the Freedom Caucus that the White House was making different, even oppositional promises to the different groups.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the White House is taking the lead on tax reform legislation, not wanting to repeat the congressional bungling of health care. However, they do not have a consensus yet on how to proceed.

On Thursday, Mitch McConnel broke the Democrats filibuster of Gorsuch by abolishing the filibuster rule for Supreme Court judges. Here is a good op-ed by E.J. Dionne that explains why Democrats chose to filibuster Gorsuch.

Syria

The Trump administration’s views on Syria went on a roller coaster ride this week. Warning: Reading these three articles in order may cause whiplash.

Saturday (4/1): White House Accepts ‘Political Reality’ of Assad’s Grip on Power

Tuesday (4/4): For Trump, A Focus on US Interests and a Disdain for Moralizing

Wednesday (4/5): Trump’s View of Syria and Assad Altered after ‘Unacceptable’ Chemical Attack 

Thursday (4/6): Trump ordered one of Assad’s airfield hit with tomahawk missiles.